1158 Extra-ordinary Telugu Poet Pingali Surana

At my blogpost No. 922, dated 21st May 2017, Shri Unknown commented as under:

Unknown May 4, 2020 at 3:57 AM
Sir, Greetings.
What is the second version of Pingali vaari Piki?
Whete and how do you get this info....

REPLY: SECOND VERSION OF THE STORY OF PINGALI VARI PEKI

Brief Recapitualation of Version 1 story, upto the point of Surana and his wife getting vexed with CEASELESS DEMANDS FOR WORK, is as under:
Quoting from Post No. 922:
Pingali Surana (or his ancestors) were going in a forest. We shall take it as Surana himself was going. On the forest path, he found a bead. He picked it up, and took home, quite casually, without thinking of consequences. When he reached home, he found a woman waiting there at his home. She said that her name was 'pEki'. She wanted to work as a servant in Surana's home, without taking any salary. Her only condition was that under no circumstances, she should be kept idle. 24 hours, she should be given work. Surana and his wife didn't / couldn't foresee the difficulties ahead. They gladly took her into service. Intially, everything went on well, because there was lot of pending things and chores. Whatever work was given to her, she was finishing in few minutes, and was asking for more work. Surana's wife was unable to provide more and more work to pEki, who was pestering them for work.

One day, sUrana's wife delivered a baby, after pregnancy. pEki was also sleeping in the same room as sUrana's wife. In those days, there were no electric lights, or remotes. As the oil lamp was getting exhausted, sUrana's wife asked pEki to push up the wick slightly, to make it burn better. pEki suddenly felt lazy, and not ready to get up, stretched her tongue from the place she was sleeping, and pushed up the wick with her tongue. Seeing this, sUrana's wife was flabbergast (astonished), and started believing that pEki was not a human, and that she might have been a ghost.

Next day, sUrana's wife narrated the incident to her husband. After sending pEki to fetch water from river, in order to escape from pEki, they tried to shift their family to a neighboring village, taking all their belongings in carts. When pEki returned from the River with water, she found that sUrana's family was missing, and neighbors told her that they shifted to the neighboring village, taking their luggage on carts. pEki found that there was a grinding-stone which was left out by sUrana's family, owing to its heavy weight. She took it up on-to her shoulders, and went to the neighboring village, in search of sUrana's new home. She reached there, and again started pestering them for work.

Finally, sUrana and his wife were tired.

FROM THIS POINT, VERSION 2

Surana's wife asked Peki to comb her hair (Surana's wife's hair, not Peki's hair). Peki combed her mistress' hair, and after braiding it, she collected all the drops-out hair(s) and made it into a a small bundle. Surana's wife asked Peki to go to Tungabhadra River , wash all the hair with River's water and Tamarind, make them straight without rings / wrinkles like thin rods of metal, and bring them back. Peki went to the River, washed the hair with Tamarind, applied Tamarind to the hair, and tried to make each piece of hair straight like thin metal rods. The more she tried to straighten the hair, the more they got wrinkled. Never-ending-work. Peki got tired and went away to wherever-from she came. She never returned to Surana's house and pestered them.

Wherefrom and how I got this story

In the year 1961-62, I was studying VII Standard at Municipal High School (Branch), Bapatla. We had to study two non-details Texts in Telugu. One Text dealt with Pingali Surana's Biography . From there I got this story. It was a Private Publisher text book, not Govt. of Andhra Pradesh text book. But, I forgot author's name. My readers, if they are very curious to study Pingali Surana's Biography, they can google, particularly at Archive.org.

What is so extra-ordinary about Surana?

He wrote a book named "Raghava abhyudayam". Every verse in the book, comes up with two meanings. 1. From Ramayana side, Rama's story. 2. From Mahabharata's side, story of Pandavas.
In no other language in the world (to the best of my knowledge), we can find this feat. Writing a single verse following the needed meter (prosody, Telugu: chandasu), with two meanings is extremely difficult. Suarana narrated two Epics, Ramayana and Mahabharat, in each verse.

I apologise for delayed reply

My blog post 922 was written in May 1917 when we were going through the after effects of Demonetisation (note-bandi) inflicted on us by ou Gauprama2014-19. Now, our Gauprama2019-24 has made us objects of Covid 19, first Wave and Second Wave. In Andhra Pradesh, our gaumuma2019-24 wanted us to resist Corona Waves by using paracetamol and bleaching powder.